92 BULLETIN AND DIARY

A "HUMAN NEEDS" DIET IN WAR TIMEThere are, at present, two fundamental problems of nutrition.

First, is it still possible for families with a small income to purchasea properly balanced diet? Secondly, what must be considered theminimum outlay for a diet which could be passed as approximatelysufficient?

In the first three weeks of March we collected prices of foodstuffsfrom the cheapest shops in Oxford and on this basis compiled a diet,the main nutritional values of which correspond as closely as possibleto those considered necessary for a well balanced diet by the BritishMedical Association. The nutritional values of the diet suggestedby us and those of the B.M.A. are given below

TABLE INutritional Values per Adult Male per Day

(gross)Ist Class 2nd Class

Calories Protein Protein Fat CarbohydratesOxford :1941 3312 49 gns. 56 gm. 9! gm. 532 gm.B.M.A. 3400 50 ,, 50 ,, 100 ,, 500

The slightly lower calorific value of our diet schedule reflectsthe war-time shortage of fat foods, which has been compensated tosome extent by an increased allowance of carbohydrates and secondclass protein. We have assumed that the purchases of our hypo-thetical diet are for a family consisting of husband, wife, and threechildren between 6 and j 4 years. The' Man' value of this family,measured by the scales used for our budget inquiries, would be3.75. This is as near as we could get to the 'Man' value of thefamily of five persons for which Mr. B. Seebohm Rowntrce hasworked out a diet at low cost in autumn 1936.1 The two diets arecompared in detail in Table II.

It will be noticed that the diet compiled by us is very similarto that given by Mr. Seebohm Rowntree. We have, in fact, changedhis diet only in so far as seemed necessary to adapt it to localhabits and war-time conditions. Of some foods we allow consider-ably less than Mr. Seebohm Rowntree, even of those which mightstill be obtained by the families in quantities larger than tabulatedby us. Thus, because of its high price, bacon has become a luxury,and we have only included, for flavouring, a quarter pound of it inour budget, as compared with i pounds in 1936, although the fullration for the family would be t pounds. Apples were very scarcein March 1941 ; but even if more than a pound a week wereobtainable, their high price sets the limit to the purchase ; thus onepound of apples stands in our budget for four pounds in the budget

1 The Human Needs of Labour, London, 1937. The 'Man' value of his samplefamily is 378.

For references see next page

Oxford, March

Quantity

1941

Prices. d.

Autumn,(Mr. Seebohm

Rowntree)Quantity

1936

Prices. d.

(A) Rationed FoodsMeat, mutton ... lb. 2 lO 24 lb. 1 54

beef ... 3 lb. 3 0 34 lb. 2 4liver ... - - ilb. s o

Bacon ... ... ... 4 lb. o 5 14 lb. s 44Margarine 30 OZ. I I i4 lb. o 74Cooking fat... ... ... so oz. o 4 -Sugar ... ... ... 24 lb. o lO 2 lb. o 44Jam ... ... 9 OZ. 0 5 i lb. o 6Tea ... ... ... 4 lb. i s 4 lb. 0 9

io o4 8

(B) Main Carbohydrate FoodsBread ... ... ... ao lb. ao ib. 3 64Flour ... ... ... 24 lb. 0 44 ¡4 lb. 0 2Oatmeal ... ... ... 24 lb. o 84 2 lb. o 6Potatoes ... ... ... 344 lb. 3 10 54 lb. 0 io4

8 34 5 I

(C) Milk and VegetablesMilk, whole ... ... 54 pts. 5 3 14 pts.f 3 94Ditto, school ... ... pts. o 74 - -Vegetables ... ... ¡4 lb. 1 9 io4 lb. 0 9

7 74 64(D) Other FOOdSausages ... ... 24 lb. s 6 i lb. o 6Fish ... ... z lb. s o 24 lb. 0 94Cheese ... ... 4 lb. 0 34 s lb. 0 9Eggs ... ... ... one 0 24 one o 1

Peas ... ... ... 4lb. 0 3 4lb. o '4Lentils ... ... ... 4 lb. 0 44 4 lb. 0 3Beans ......... jIb. 03 - -Unrationed fats ... ... 4 lb. 0 aj 14 lb. 0 7Rice ... IOOZ. 0 4 IOOZ. O i4Semolina ... ... ... 4 lb. o 5 - -Barley ... ... ... 2 oz. o oj 2 oz. o o4Cocoa ... ... ... 4 lb. o 4 lb. 0 24Apples ... ... ... j lb. o 8 4 lb. 0 6Condiments . -. ... - 0 3 - O 3Treacle ......... - - ilb. 0 3Dates ......... - 41b. 0 14Sago ......... - - jIb. 0 04Extra veg. and fruit ... - - - 0 9

6 04 5 44

Total cost of diet ... ... - 32 0 - 23 5

BULLETIN AND DIARY 93TABLE II

Weekly Diet for a Family of Five Persons

94 BULLETIN AND DIARY* Half of it 'special' margarine.§ Mr. Seebohn Rowntree gives in his budget i68 lbs. of wholemcal flour at a

total cost of 21. 4jd., but allows an additional outlay up to s. if the bread isbought. We have given in our budget expenditure on white bread, and havereplaced Mr. Seebohm Rowntree's figures by the identical purchases of whitebread at 1936 prices.

t The original budget gives the equivalent of 14 pints of fresh milk in the formof tinned skimmed milk at a total cost of as. As in March 1941 tinned skimmedmilk was unobtainable in Oxford, we have calculated for the 1936 budget as wellas for the 1941 budget the outlay for fresh whole milk.

Excluding yeast for baking bread.

of 1936. On the other hand, we allow an additional pint of milk perperson per week, in the form of the children's school milk. For ourdiet to be made more appetizing some further expenditure onflavouring will be almost indispensable, to compensate for theshortage of jam, and the absence of treacle and dried fruit, and, toincrease its dangerously low content of vitamin C, possibly alsosome more expenditure on fresh fruit, lettuce, watercress, etc. Itstotal cost would then rise to, say, 33S. To feed a person on the dietproposed by us would thus cost per week about 6s. 7d., or is. ud.more than an approximately equivalent diet (from a nutritionalpoint of view) in 1936. That is, in spite of the partial substitution ofcheap for more expensive foodspotatoes and legumes' for bacon,vegetables for fruitthe outlay in March i4i would be about 41per cent higher than in autumn 1936. The Ministry of Labourretail food index shows an increase of about per cent over thesame period. Of this, 20 per cent took place subsequently toSeptember 1939. The additional increase in the budgets in TableII is due to the greater rise in price of the cheaper qualities of food.

It must, however, be borne in mind that the supply of foods istotally different now from what it was in t 936. We have, indeed,taken great care not to list any foods in quantities larger thancould actually be obtained, or at prices which, although theymight be charged in the cheapest shop at one end of the town, werefar below those which a housewife had to pay at the other end. Theprices on which we have based our food budget are not, in fact, theabsolutely lowest ascertained by us, but the average prices in theleast expensive shops in a given district at which a housewife couldbuy the weekly food for her family. A certain amount of substitutionmust be allowed for. For instance, in one locality she may be ableto get salt fish, herrings, or kippers, which give her for a shilling morethan a pound, while unable to obtain as much as 7 lbs. of meat for5s. iod. Or she may find that she can buy few or no sausages, butthat there is a fairly good supply of cheap fish. Liver was practicallyabsent from the shops, and hence has been omitted from our budgetschedule, although, because of its contents of vitamins and minerals,it is a highly valuable food. The proportion of mutton to beef

1 Dried peas, lentils, beans.

BULLETIN AND DIARY 95

which can be bought will vary according to the supplies of meat tothe local butchers. These factors are often quite beyond the house-wife's control, and they may considerably affect the amount ofnutritional values which can be purchased in the form of a parti-cular kind of food for a given sum of money. If, moreover, most ofthe families with a small income actually wanted to buy inexpensivestewing meat only instead of taking the major part of their ration inthe form of a joint, it would become even more difficult than isalready proved to be to obtain the amount of nutritional valuesscheduled for meat. Unrationed fats were very scarce, and theirprices varied in different parts of the town from 6d. to Is. a pound,due, probably, to differences in quality. We have assumed anaverage price of 9d.

In Table III are shown the nutritional values per 'Man' per daywhich would be obtained from the several food groups of our dietschedule.

TABLE IIINutritional Values of Rationed and other Foods from Low Cost Diet, ig.r

(per 'Man' per day)Rationed Main Car- Milk Vege- Other

Foods bohydrate tables FoodsCalories ... 8 1780 285 44 349Protein ... 294 gm. 454 gm. '31 i64 gm.

The main deficiencies of the diet are a shortage of vitamin C andprobably also of iron and calcium. Its contents of the two mineralsas well as of the vitamin B group can be considerably improved ifbrown bread is substituted for white bread. It was, 'however,affirmed in all districts that the familis in question do not likebrown bread, which, moreover, was sold everywhere at a pricebetween d. and i 4d. per pound higher than that of white bread.The larger the proportion of leafy green vegetables in the total ofvegetables consumed, the better will be the supply of iron from thisgroup. The present shortage of fresh fruit makes very difficult thesupply of vitamin C at moderate cost, unless the family were regu-larly to eat some raw turnip or swede, both of which are rich invitamin C. As the vitamin is little heat resisting, it is easily destroyedin the process of cooking the vegetables, especially if alkalis arepl esent.

Assuming then the consumption of brown instead of white breadand also of some foods rich in vitamins C we have here a diet whichwould supply for healthy adults and older children an adequatelybalanced nutrition at a cost of less than 7s. per head.1 It is, as wehave already pointed out, a diet which could actually be purchasedin Oxford shops. The average housewife, however, will scarcely findherself in a position to supply it to her family. First, there are the

'The cost per 'Man' would be about 9s.

96 BULLETIN AND DIARYdifficulties in obtaining the foods. This applies not only to therelatively large quantities of meat for the family's rations, but alsoto sausages and cheap fish. Both these foods are now scarce, andthey have to be bought when they can be had. This needs consider-able adaptability on the part of the housewife, and considerableskill in catering, as the housewife whom we are visualizing here hasto manage on a small weekly allowance. It needs, moreover, a con-siderable amount of time to do the shopping. Secondly, the sub-stantial quantities of carbohydrates and second class protein foodsfeatured in our diet can only be eaten in the form of cooked meals.As far as could be ascertained there are very few housewives with alarge family who regularly for one meal cook root vegetables orgreens, potatoes, and legumes, and, in addition, a milk pudding,and who, on the sanie day, provide another complete meal, besidesa cooked breakfast. This demands a cook of ability and imagina-tion; and a good deal of thought and attention are necessary to dothe large amount of cooking with a minimum consumption of fuel.It thus seems that ifa standard diet similar to that pictured in TableII were to be made available to people it could only be done bysupplying them with at least one communal meal a day.

The question may arise whether as a war-time emergency thediet could be further simplified or reduced and, if so, by how muchwithout ill effects on people's health. This is obviously a problem forphysiologists. Of some interest in this context is an analysis madein 1936 of the food intake of 109 women students of the College ofDomestic Science in Glasgow 'Their average age was 21 years, theiraverage height 162 cm., and their average weight 5585 kg. Most ofthem were taking a fair amount of physical exercise, in addition totheir work in College. They all were medically examined andfound to be of good general health. For a period of days theirnormal and freely chosen intake of food was controlled and analysed.The main nutritional values of their daily intake, per person andper 'Man,' are shown in Table IV.

TABLE IVAverage Nutritional Values of the Food Intake of 109 Women Students (per day)

Calories Total Protein ist class Protein Fatper person 2035 711 gm. 445 gm. 79.0 gifl.per 'Man' 6o 895 gin. 525 gm. 930 gin.

From the report it appears that the data refer to net values; buteven so the calorific intake of these students seems strikingly low.Their intake of first class protein, however, was high. It may bethat people living on a well balanced diet containing a sufficiencyof proteins, vitamins, and minerals, need considerably less calorificfood than is usually assumed. Analyses of family budgets seem to

'Discussed in E. P. Cathcart and A. M. T. Murray, A Dietary Survey in Termsof the Actual Foodstuffs Consumed. H.M.S.O., 5937.

BULLETIN AND DIARY 97

indicate that when the standard of living of the lower incomegroups declines there is a tendency for a steep increase in the con-sumption of carbohydrate foods and, in consequence of this, for anincrease in the calorific value of the food intake. This, probably,reflects in part the lower stiety value of a diet lacking in fat and inpart the physiological craving for certain essential dietetic elementsprotein, minerals, and vitaminsof which in many cheap foodsvery little is tied up in a great deal of starchy matter. It thus seemspossible that if a di supplying a sufficiency of these elements and offat were adopted it might be found that actually less bread andflour, and, perhaps, also less of the other cereals is needed than thequantities given in Table II.

T. SCHULZ.